The survival rate of ancient literature

[Sean Manning]

My original question has been answered in this thread and by a PM from someone who probably didn't want to get into this argument, so why don't we stop now or start a new thread?

Sure. I learned some new things from the thread.

~Theo

I sure did! It sounds like under 1% and maybe about 0.1% of ancient literature survives. I'll read up on medieval Alexandria and Carthage and judge their history for myself.

Robert, I know that a fellow named Manuel Chrysoleras came to Italy about 1400 CE to teach the Italians Greek and make some good Latin translations of Greek texts. There is an article on him and people like him here. I have no idea how they justified the switch, unless they hadn't been in the angry mobs screaming “better the Sultan than the Pope!â€